1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for analyzing agonist-activity and antagonist-activity of an examinee to cytokinin receptor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cytokinins are plant hormones relevant to cell division and differentiation of higher plants and are well-known as very important physiologically active substances having functions of inducing division of cells of higher plants, differentiating the callus and pith to the stems and leaves, ethiolating and defoliating leaves, preventing the falling of fruit, breaking the dominance of the terminal bud and the like [Cytokinins: Chemistry, Activity, and Function, CRC Press (1994)]. The substances having cytokinins-like activities are usable as plant growth regulators, for example, fruit-falling preventive agents for fruits such as apple, orange, and the like, plant-falling preventive agents for rice plants, barley, wheat and the like by regulating the height of the plants, and sweetness increasing agents for fruits after harvest.
As a method for finding substances having such cytokinins-like activities, conventionally employed is a method for observing and evaluating the physiological changes by directly spraying examinee substances to plant.
The aforementioned method has problems that it requires to prepare the examinee substances in amounts sufficient to directly spray them to plant and also requires immensely long time to observe and evaluate the growth of the plant and the physiological changes of the plant after spraying of the examinee substances. Therefore, it has been required for a long to develop a variety of methods for quickly finding substances having cytokinins-like activities with small amounts of examinee substances.